Name: Tomato and Shrimp Salad
Ingredients: 1 large tomato; ½ cup cooked shrimp; Mayonnaise to taste; Lettuce leaves

Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato and Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

1 large tomato
½ cup cooked shrimp
Mayonnaise to taste
Lettuce leaves

Directions

Prepare

Cut off the top of the tomato and scoop out the insides.
Mix the shrimp with mayonnaise to taste.

Assemble and serve

Fill the hollowed tomato with the shrimp mixture.
Serve on a lettuce leaf.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + shrimptop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,689 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Shrimp + lettucetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together430 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomato: Forms the hollow shell that holds the filling and adds juiciness and acidity.
Shrimp: Provides the main protein and substance of the filling.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and creaminess that binds the shrimp into a moist filling.